Thoughts on a 4-2 Rangers loss

Rays 4, Rangers 2

• Losses in day games are worse than normal losses because you have all day to think about it. Losses the day before an off day are worse than normal losses because you don’t have a game the next day to look forward to possibly getting the bad taste of the loss out of your mouth. Losses in day games the day before an off day is a terrible combination of the two, as more than 48 hours of wallowing in this defeat will ensue before the next game.
• I don’t really have much to say about this game. It was an unpleasant game, without much in the way of offense. Shin-Soo Choo had a solo home run early on, and otherwise, the bats did little until the ninth, when an Adrian Beltre single/Joey Gallo walk/Drew Robinson single brought the go-ahead run to the plate. Renato Nunez was scheduled to hit with two on and one out, but Ronald Guzman pinch hit for him, and promptly hit into a game-ending double play. So that was that.
• Cole Hamels had a shutout through five innings, then got knocked around in the sixth, giving up three runs. I figured that, with a rested bullpen and an offday tomorrow, Jeff Banister would go to a reliever in the seventh, but he opted to stay with Hamels. Hamels gave up a single, got a ground ball that Nunez booted for an error, and then gave up a double, bringing in the fourth run, which chased him from the game. Hamels’ pitch count was low -- he ended the game at just 86 pitches — but under the circumstances, I was surprised that Hamels was allowed to go back out in the seventh.
• Chris Martin got out of the jam, and Alex Claudio pitched a scoreless eighth, albeit with a couple of hits allowed. The bullpen continues to quietly do a pretty decent job this season.
• Anyway. Pretty bleah game. It feels like this is what half of all mid-week day games on the road are like...